COEHS K-12 School District & CESA Outreach Program

It takes K-12 districts and the College of Education and Human Services working together to develop teachers who are prepared to meet the challenges of the modern-day classroom. This is why we have been committed to annual summer visits to school districts throughout Northeast Wisconsin since 2007, as well as our two K-12 Advisory Councils.

In the past, these visits have served as a network to introduce new COEHS programs and promote current master’s degrees and gain insight for the college into changes in K-12 practices and needs.

With so many changes occurring at the state and district level since spring 2011, this summer we’re gathering feedback on behalf of the college pertaining to four issues that are impacting districts, new teacher education and continuing education for professional teachers. These four issues are:

How district handbooks will now address professional development opportunities for individual staff members and district-wide initiatives, including graduate credits and master’s degrees.

Expectations of teacher candidates in light of changes in what a teacher needs to know and do to be successful in a district (e.g., common core standard, RtI, assessment and data).

District rules related to video recording as new assessment standards (TPA) require student teachers to produce a video of themselves teaching a classroom of students.

Questions as to the future potential of add-on licensure programs for existing staff.

In addition, we’re looking to better understand challenges and specific program needs, discuss public education in our region and across the state, obtain feedback about our students and new teachers and learn how K-12 schools are managing through assessments, new standards and changing curricula.

A record 45 visits are slated for this summer’s outreach.We’ll be documenting each visit and the resulting website posts will include links to topics and COEHS programs that we discuss with school and district administrators, pictures and links to the individual district websites. Please check back often for updates and insights from each visit.

Outreach Program History

Fred Yeo, Dean of the College of Education and Human Services, began the K-12 School District and CESA Outreach program in the summer of 2007 as a way to expand the college’s Outreach program by regularly meeting with K-12 district administrators and principals. Jim Hoffman, COEHS special projects director and retired principal from Oshkosh Area School District, and Fred have repeated the program every summer since, visiting districts within the college’s service region covering CESA 6 and much of CESA 7.